ADC and MPAC Work to Refute Premise of King Hearings

Much has been made of the impending hearings planned by Congressman Peter King (R-NY) targeting the Muslim community for alleged widespread radicalization and implied disloyalty. King’s reliance on anti-Muslim bigots for information, coupled with the obvious counterproductive effect of such hearings on trust between the community and law enforcement, has prompted leading Arab American and American Muslim organizations to preemptively expose the fallacious premise on which such hearings are based.

Today, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) will hold a Hill briefing on the existing relationship between our community and law enforcement. ADC Legal Director Abed Ayoub said,

It is important that Rep. King understand that the community has been cooperating with law enforcement for a number of years. His proposed hearings are aimed at painting the Arab and Muslim American communities as "suspect communities," which is not only bigoted, but it also undermines years of efforts between the community and law enforcement agencies on a local, state and federal level.

Next week, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) will be hosting a forum on the Hill titled “Muslims, Law Enforcement and National Security." The forum will take place on February 7 at 12:30pm in room B-354, also at the Rayburn House Office Building. Speakers include CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen, former Director for Transnational Threats at the National Security Council (NSC) Roger Cressey, and other distinguished experts and analysts.

The efforts of groups like ADC and MPAC are unlikely to shake Congressman King’s stubborn outlook towards Muslims, as evident by his deeply problematic history of unreasonable and inflammatory statements about Muslim Americans, by they will provide the information needed to effectively counter this wave of demonization that the American Muslim community is facing today.